“Hellraiser 3: Hell on Earth” continues to add to the
Hellraiser mythos by exploring even further the history of Eliot Spencer, aka
Pinhead. We see that he was a solider for the British Army during what appears
to be World War One, engaging in the vicious trench warfare that occurred.
Surely there couldn’t be anything more horrific than what he say there, right?
The film fully excepts the odd offer that “Hellraiser 2:
Hellbound” ended with, the bizarre and grotesque living pillar that has both
the Lament Configuration and Pinhead’s face engraved into it. This object is
bought as an art piece, unknown to the buyer that the essence of the Cenobite
is trapped within. After a bit of blood is splashed onto the pillar, Pinhead’s
essence awakens. Trapped within, Pinhead is forced to promise and deceive the
owner with assurances of power if he brings Pinhead a sacrifice in blood. Just
like the bed and the floorboards from the first two movies, blood plays an
important role. I have to say that this is a super unique concept that proves
to work out amazingly well in the movie.
Pinhead and the Lament Configuration are the only parts of
the mythos that appear in every Hellraiser film. The introduction of the Lament
Configuration in this film is fuzzy at best. The movie opens with a victim
being rushed into a hospital with fish-hooked chains piercing his skin, which
become electrified when the doctors try to help him. He drops the Lament
Configuration before going into the operating room and a girl who was with him
picks it up. So how did the Box break free from the pillar? What did the guy do
to get chained? This is never explained and this is something that should have
been.
Unfortunately this movie is where the franchise begins to
fail in my opinion. It makes sense when Pinhead is talking to J.P while trapped
in the pillar but he keeps talking throughout the film. There are plenty of
great quotes once again but I feel that Pinhead lost his sense of somber-seriousness.
In the novella “The Hellbound Heart”, Pinhead was referred to as the Priest and
I felt that was what he was in the first two films. Granted, he’s now a pure
demon let loose in the streets of LA, but come on!
The second aspect of this movie I don’t care for is how
there are new Cenobites. We can see directly how they are themed and it’s a bit
heavy handed. Plus the fact that they aren’t people who solved the Lament
Configuration but only victims of the insane Pinhead.
Kirsty makes a brief appearance in the film in recordings
from interviews that Dr. Channard performed from the previous film. This time
the protagonist is a reporter named Joey, played by Terry Ferrell (right before
she became famous as 7of9 in Deep Space Nine).
Joey comes across a story that could make her career as a
news reporter; a murder involving fish-hooked chains that is connected to the
Boiler Room and its owner J.P Monore. Joey befriends Terri, a girl who has
history with J.P. As they try to unravel the mystery, J.P is seduced by the
essence of Pinhead, trapped within a living pillar. Suffice to say, J.P ends up
as the sacrifice, Terri suffers her own tragic end, and Pinhead turns the
Boiler Room into an absolute hell. Joey learns about Eliot through her dreams
and is told that he can help her if she can bring Pinhead to him. As she tries this,
this is faced with a new breed of Cenobites created by Pinhead who include her
old cameraman and the DJ from the dance club. Even Terri has been turned into a
Cenobite, which at this point is just silly. Eventually Joey is able to get
Pinhead and Eliot together and now has to deal with a restored and dreadful
Pinhead.
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